Kin to Yesteryear: 10 of the best books of 2026 so far

From a darkly comic tale of revenge to a beautiful contemplation on friendship, here are the year's most acclaimed works of fiction so far.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

"Daring, deranged, cleverly written," is how Vogue describes the buzzy debut by Caro Claire Burke. In this satirical thriller, tradwife influencer Natalie inexplicably wakes up in the year 1855 in a crumbling homestead. The harsh reality of rural existence in the 19th Century soon becomes clear. Yesteryear, says the LA Times, "offers a bitingly funny and occasionally heartbreaking twist on the classic Instagram-versus-reality story". Natalie is "a deliciously unlikable protagonist" who is "objectively off-putting, which makes her bitingly human". The novel is due to be adapted for film, with Anne Hathaway producing and starring. (LB)

Transcription by Ben Lerner

In Transcription, an unnamed middle-aged writer travels from New York to Providence, Rhode Island, to interview Thomas, a 90-year-old former mentor and revered writer and film-maker. The stakes are high – Thomas's recent bout of Covid means this interview could be his last – and the writer breaks his phone just before the interview, rendering him unable to record the esteemed artist's words. What follows is a reflection on technology, storytelling and memory that The Guardian says is "intricate, uncanny, sometimes breathtakingly realistic", while The New Yorker writes: "Nothing in this exquisite, shape-shifting novel is what it seems – words least of all." (RL)

Look What You Made Me Do by John Lanchester

"Gleefully nasty," is how The Times describes John Lanchester's widely acclaimed fifth novel, a black comedy of betrayal, revenge, resentment and entitlement. At its centre are affluent boomer Kate and younger screenwriter Phoebe. A rivalry between them begins when Kate recognises intimate secrets from her 30-year marriage in a hit TV series. The novel "seethes with female animosity and vengeance," says the Literary Review. "Skewed scenarios and retaliatory stratagems are craftily deployed in a novel that's a kaleidoscope of tilting perspectives." Look What you Made Me Do, it concludes,  is "a gleamingly accomplished black comedy". (LB)

The Keeper by Tana French

French is a bestselling author described by The New York Times as "one of the most consistently exciting mystery writers around". The Keeper is the final instalment in a trilogy that stars retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper, who becomes enmeshed in the intrigue of the fictional Irish village of Ardnakelty. As the body of a young woman is found in a river, Hooper is drawn into investigating the case. Amid the town's bitter feuds and long-standing grudges, he grapples with the future of this rural community. "Dense, compelling and superbly........

© BBC